Controversy Alert! Majority Favors Death Penalty, Do You? — Survey of the Day

According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a solid but decreasing majority of Americans support the death penalty. Of the 2001 adults polled, 63 percent were in favor of capital punishment, whereas 31 percent were opposed.

These levels of support were more or less unchanged over the last few years. However, compared to the early ’90s when death penalty support peaked at 78 percent, there has been a clear decline in those who favor the the sanction. According to Pew’s data, this can be attributed to more people worrying that the criminal justice system is imperfect, and that an innocent person could be executed because of this.